From the Papers: How to enrich your reading of Peel’s biographies

Fans of Robert Peel’s three-volume biography of Mary Baker Eddy may have noted the arrival of new digital editions, available on JSH-Online.

Released in 2022 and 2024, respectively, these digital copies of The Years of Discovery and The Years of Trial¹ contain new insight into original sources, as all references have been verified and updated. Features also include new forewords, chronological outlines, archival images with thorough credits, complete bibliographies, and extended footnotes.

The Mary Baker Eddy Papers team contributed to those footnotes. Now, when Peel cites a particular letter in The Mary Baker Eddy Collection, you can click on a direct link to read that entire document on the Papers website. We’d like to share with you some of the ways you might use the footnotes in The Years of Trial to enrich your reading of the biographies while exploring new pathways into the Papers.

In the early days of the Christian Science movement, Eddy often delivered the sermon at Sunday church services. For example, in Chapter VI, “Pulpit and Podium,” Peel writes about her preaching, mentioning her letter to Ellen Brown Linscott, in which she related that one recent sermon had “called out much praise.”² For example, to learn more about that service, you can click the link in the footnote:

You’ll then be taken directly to that letter on the Papers website, where you can see a full transcription of the letter, along with a scanned image of the original. Reading the full letter, you’ll see Eddy mentioned that “The hall was filled, all the standing room taken and about fifty had to go away for lack of seats”:

Next, you could click on the hyperlinked word hall in the document and learn more about Hawthorne Hall, the location where Eddy was preaching at the time. While Peel mentions Hawthorne Hall as the location for Sunday church meetings, you’ll get much more detail in the pop-up on this letter. You can also see a photo of the hall itself:

Once you’ve read the letter and the linked information in pop-ups, you can scroll back to the top and click on the accession number, A10088, in the “Related topic” field:

That will take you to a draft of the sermon itself. From there you can also explore an original typed copy of the sermon—likely made by Eddy’s secretary Calvin Frye—along with handwritten edits by Eddy in pencil and edits by Frye in pen. You can also read the transcription.

Any teal-colored text in the transcription is clickable. So you could select an allusion to a Bible verse and read the full Bible citation in a pop-up:

All of this rich contextual detail is available by following a path that begins with a single footnote.

These footnotes also help you learn more about people who contributed to the early Christian Science movement. For instance, in Chapter VIII, “Acclaim and Dissent,” Peel discusses a number of them, illustrating in particular how women were some of the strongest supporters in the early days of Christian Science. Leading into this discussion, he mentions a letter Eddy wrote to “another student.”³

By following the footnote at the bottom of the page to the Papers site, you’ll discover that “another student” refers to M. Bettie Bell, who was instrumental in establishing Christian Science in Chicago. You can read her bio in the pop-up and then click on “See more letters” to read more of her correspondence with Eddy:

We hope this gives you a few ideas to begin exploring how links to the Mary Baker Eddy Papers can enrich your reading of this pivotal biographical work on Mary Baker Eddy. As always, we’d love to answer any questions or comments you may have!